:: Happy New Year!

Just back in from a big long walk around Holyrood Park, plus a side trip to Linlithgow. Holyrood Park was hotching today - there was the annual One O'Clock Run, the Bicycle Triathlon and Dogmanay, aka husky racing. Bertie was freaked out by the crowds and by the husky-racing commentary, which was echoing round the hills and crags. "HIKE AWAY hike away hike away ay ay HIKE AWAY hike away ay ay YIYIYIYI yiyiyiyiyi!!!!!!!!!" Poor dog was completely baffled. I had imagined the huskies would have been running on a trail in the hills, but they were confined to quite a small oval down on the flat by the palace, running just two teams at a time. I squeezed through to watch a couple of races but they weren't very thrilling: the dogs didn't seem to be taking them seriously at all, some teams were barely running & the mushers were having to scoot their carts along. Bertie was all a-tremble with fear and excitement - "Is she cold?" people asked constantly.

As it was a nice day I drove on past Queensferry to Linlithgow for a walk by the loch. It was much, much colder there, though, so we didn't linger.



I had a quiet New Year's Eve - quiet that is apart from the sound of a dog alternately barking and frantically trying to dig a hole in a corner of the livingroom. I phoned Pinky just after the Bells and had to raise my voice to be heard over the racket. You're supposed to just ignore them, according to the dog behaviourists, otherwise you can inadvertantly reward the activity. But it's hard to ignore such a carry-on! He'd been pretty good most of the evening; there were fireworks earlier but I left the radio on (Classic FM) and all the curtains pulled and he slept on. But at midnight there was a loud volley across the road and behind the house too.

I have another couple of days off and will spend them doing a spot of shopping and DIY. Faye's coming to stay next month, and then Margaret, Jean and Rachael in June, so I've decided to freshen up the spare room. I'm going to put a double bed in there, and move the single bed into the small bedroom that was my study before I got the laptop. I'm going to shop for a bed in the sales tomorrow. I'm also going to paint the small bedroom - it's the one room that hasn't been done yet. Both spare bedrooms need curtains as well, something else I hope to get in the sales. The small room used to have venetians, but they broke with a crash last month - the brackets snapped off.

I may move the old desktop computer into the larger room, I'll see what works best. The big spare bedroom is where Bertie's bed is, so he may have to move. I remember when I decorated my bedroom and moved my furniture in there: my kingsize bed happened to go where Bertie's bed was, and he just assumed I was giving it to him and was mightily pissed off to be booted off!